After Luis Torrens lined out to end the game, New York Mets fans booed. However, anger was not the emotion that rang out from the Citi Field crowd. Instead, Mets fans were in a state of shock. Somehow, someway, they had just lost two out of three to a Nationals team that has been absolutely hopeless all season.
The Mets are fighting for their playoff lives, but they could not get the job done against a 64-92 Nationals team. If the Mets finish off their epic collapse and miss the playoffs, this will
surely be the series their fans look back on. On paper, the Mets absolutely outclass the Nationals, but the games are not played on paper.
The situation grew bleak for the Mets early in the ballgame. In the top of the second, Sean Manaea got into trouble and could not wriggle his way out. As you would expect, Daylen Lile was the man who started things off with a base hit.
After a Paul DeJong fly out, journeyman backup catcher Jorge Alfaro delivered the first blow of the contest. He ripped a ball off the wall in left field, which should have set up a second and third situation. However, Francisco Lindor made a bad throw into second base which allowed Lile to score on the play.
It was a 1-0 game and the Nats were still threatening. They would get a big boost from an unexpected source. With two outs, the light hitting Nasim Nunez launched a homer out to left field to make it a 3-0 ball game. Citi Field was stunned and the Mets knew they had a fight on their hands.
However, the Mets offense was unable to muster much. They scored one run in the third inning on a strange play where Daylen Lile got hurt and the ball was just sitting in the corner. With Lile down, a somewhat confused Luis Torrens jogged home.
Besides that, Jake Irvin was really sharp in his first five innings. The velocity was up today for Irvin which helped him out. For most of the afternoon, Irvin was sitting between 93-95 on his fastball. With this new found gas in the tank, Irvin had his best start in a while.
However, he was helped out massively by his center fielder in the fifth inning. Jacob Young made one of the craziest, most creative catches you will ever see to rob Brett Baty. He went back to the wall and got his glove on the ball, but the ball popped out of his glove. In a feat of insane coordination, Young used his foot to kick the ball up back into his glove to make a surreal catch.
After a Francisco Lindor homer in the sixth, it was a 3-2 game that was on a knife’s edge. Miguel Cairo sent out an interesting man to walk the tightrope. That would be Mitchell Parker. This was Parker’s first relief appearance after being booted from the rotation for poor performance.
He made this first outing a special one. Parker came in with two on and one out in the sixth. However, he managed to get out of trouble, forcing a pop up from Jeff McNeil and striking out Mark Vientos.
In the next few innings, the Nats would get players into scoring position time after time, but they could not add to the lead. This game was right there for the Mets to grab. An ineffective starter was trying to get a 3.2 inning save and his offense did not provide him any insurance.
However, the Mets simply would not grab the game. Mitchell Parker was putting up zeroes inning after inning. When he came out for the ninth, there was a pit in my stomach. This game did not mean anything for the Nats, but all Nats fans desperately wanted to put a wrench in the Mets playoff ambitions.
In the bottom of the 9th, Jacob Young delivered again with another outstanding catch. This one was more conventional, but still absolutely stunning. The ball was flying out of the yard, so Young had to get to the wall quickly and time his jump perfectly. He did just that and robbed Francisco Alvarez.
These are the kinds of games that get the fans going. High stakes games where you can really make a mark on a team’s season. It makes me miss the days when we were playing in these high stakes games down the stretch, rather than just being a spoiler. Hopefully we will be back before too long.
